He had a lot of discussion about that....mostly in the same disbelief.
I've not tried to duplicate that, but do consider it as possible.
1. Good barrel is a good barrel no matter who made it.
2. Good barrel matched to a pellet that happens to fit it well.
3. Good uniform launch speed.
4. Good shooter at the trigger.
5. Using a decent rest to take out a lot of the variability in handling/trigger
Yeah....
Points to consider are:-
Is this the result of single 5 shot serials from each gun? You really need to fire 10 shot serials on three different occasions and then compare the results.
Were the guns shot individually or in what we call interleaved serials when each gun is fired one shot at a time. If they are not fired interleaved it is impossible to guarantee the conditions have not changed between each gun firing and that the shooter is not getting tired etc.
Were each of the guns equally comfortable to fire? It maybe that the cheap gun was just more of a fit to the shooter. That is why the test needs to be done with the guns fixed in a stand.
These are all things we did when testing guns.
No one wants to own the fact that it just might be more accurate. Is that so hard?
All that is because we pay 2000 dollars for an airgun that as all the bells and whistles and then turns out that a 200 dollars rifle that is ...so plain, Chinese , 2000 psi max ,heavy trigger , no power adjust , no regulator , no barrel interchange, no shroud and no multishot. Its more accurate than ours.
IT JUST DONT MAKE SENSE IT GOT TO BE AN EXPLANATION FOR IT. LMAO
So the Chief probably gave away a few BC points (.22 vs .25) and STILL shot as well as the more expensive guns?
Yeah, that could irritate a few guys.
You have to remember that the Chief is based on an old crosman (160) designed to meet a US military contract for a training rifle, and has, since it's reintroduction by the Chinese, received about 40 years of steady improvements. Improvements from a pretty poor starting point, admittedly, but even at the beginning, they were often absurdly accurate for the price.
Sound design + good bore + the good QC the Chinese have grown into over the last few years = accurate gun.
So the Chief probably gave away a few BC points (.22 vs .25) and STILL shot as well as the more expensive guns?
Yeah, that could irritate a few guys.
You have to remember that the Chief is based on an old crosman (160) designed to meet a US military contract for a training rifle, and has, since it's reintroduction by the Chinese, received about 40 years of steady improvements. Improvements from a pretty poor starting point, admittedly, but even at the beginning, they were often absurdly accurate for the price.
Sound design + good bore + the good QC the Chinese have grown into over the last few years = accurate gun.
You are absolutely right thanks for the response. And has a fx crown .25 owner i can say u right ...that makes me kinda salty that i pay $2000 (and waited ages to get) for an air rifle thinking that was one of the best air rifles the money can buy (at least accurate wise)and then turns out that a shocking $168 with 2 day free delivery (amazon prime) .22 Chinese air rifle can put better groups at 100 yards.
Do remember that those Chief results got a bit of posting action... not everyone believes it could happen. Some believe anything could happen for a single 5 shot group.
Anyway, I got one (.22) about a year ago now(still in operation) and talked to several other folks who also tried them. Not that a2K fill, smaller air volume, single shot,non-regulated, PCP is really going to gather a giant following in today's airgun scene (basically, it's the rifle that should have been made 10 years ago).
First thing is that energy is usually something like 24-30 foot pounds. That would be a good speed for launching 15-20 grain pellets, but most long range shooters seem to want the higher BC heavyweights. At Least mine will spin the 34gr. pellets for good accuracy,but you're lobbing them out there in the lower 600fps area).
I'm NOT saying speed is absolutely essential to long range accuracy....but higher BC does work better in the wind..and there is always some wind.
(Near me is an old "For Lease" Quonset Hut type steel building that's at least 320 feet long. Even inside, there is some stray drift of the dust in the air....but I often wonder if they'd rent it to me for a week.)
It's a 2K rated rifle. Could beef up the valve fixation screws and run it harder than it was designed for to gain power....I just rejected the higher pressure option. Did change the valve screws...as a belt-and-suspenders kind of thing (never get into trouble by increasing the safety factor).
Considering the air volume and the best-of-the-best shot count, pretty well limited to 15-20 shots in a reasonable velocity variation for even 50 yard shooting.
So I shot at 50 yards 4 or 5 times, counting averages of 3 5-shot groups.
Usually,I'd twitch oneand end up over 1/2". Sometimes I Totally miss-guessed the wind and ended up closer to 1" due to one "hermit"shot. (The ones that want to run away from all the others and live way-off by themselves.)
At least once, I got it totally right. On target/on center/and under 1/2" for 3X5 shots. Evidently from the date, it took me a couple of months.
(YEah...the hand drawn targets....sometimes you need to make the target fit well with a straight 6X scope. It'as on 1/4"graph paper,so you can figure the size of things for yourself...but that size target just let me quarter it better with that 6X).
Not that I count it that way. Like any rifle I've owned/tested for a time,generally consider the average-of-the-average (including the "hermits"). I can find notes on ,ost of the 50 yard testing (various weather conditions), and if I had to make an honest claim for the rifle (and shooter), would be more like .6"-.85" at 50 yards.
Now the bad stuff (not that much).
1.If you aren't interested in a 2K fill/small air volume/ single shot .22 PCP...are other choices.
2. Make a cost-benefit decision. While you could hot rod a Chief up in power, decide if it would be worth doing compared to the other sub $200 offerings.
3. Not real fond of running PCP's above their rated pressure no matter how good the valve fixation. You might be. If I become aware of it at the range, I'll be the guy moving two benches away(your choice/your risk,but sitting next to me makes it MY risk).
4. The one shown is one of the old ones that did not have an external way to adjust the striker spring tension. The ones for nearly the last year evidently do.
5. Chiefs tend to kill bolt probe o-rings. At least this ond one used horribly small/thin o-rings. I smoothed the seating surface for the bolt probe and machined the bolt probe o-ring seat to accept a more common (thicker/slightly fatter) o-ring.
6. Will notice in the picture I moved the barrel band back and inletted it into the stock. That was more to help POA/POI stability than accuracy.
It makes me happy that the humble QB still has a place in modern airgunning.
David Enoch
Guess the point with the Chief post is that even with non regulated PCP's is to adjust/test/adjust/test rather than get fixated on just max. speed/energy.
Find where it lives "happy"and stay in that spot.
While I still can't really prove that a 3 or 4% variation in velocity results in worse groups at 50 yards than a 2% variation.....I gotta believe it's "something"even if I'm unable to wring it out do to all the other variables, and at least it's a variable we can control to an extent.
So inside this shot string, there are 26 useable shots. Inside those 26 shots, there are a good 15 shots that are inside of 2%...lets call it 20 shots inside of 3%. So when trying for the best thr rifle can do, I stay inside of where those 15 shots seem to live (and when just busting cat-food cans, will just shoot until I notice low hits).
I'd likely not need the hand-drawn targets that fit the 6X scope if I swapped to a higher power scope....but targets are the main use of the rifle and I like the field of view of the 6x.
So.... no matter that the barrel is a China-made one so long as it shoots well.
No matter it's not regulated so long as it's a uniform launch speed.
No matter if it's not regulated so long as you stay in the sweetest-of-the-sweet spot.
All I can say about triggers is that some shooters are more immune to them than others.